"Oh. Oh no."

The two had woken up together in a small, locked chamber which the young detective had quickly understood was an escape room. A tape recording had warned them that they had 12 hours to escape the building before it became their tomb, whatever that meant. Not only that, there were traps everywhere, and explosive necklaces around their necks ensured they'd play by the rules—or else.

"All right. Okay," Tim murmured, trying to stay positive. "We can... We can do this. Just solve puzzles. Yeah." His eyes began to scan the room, looking for anything that seemed out of place. Normally, he would ace this type of thing—but between the time limit and the consequences of failure, his mind was racing. What if there were traps designed to look like clues? A proper escape room would have red herrings, but nothing lethal. This place? There was no telling if there even was a way out. For all he knew, someone could be playing a sick game, wanting to watch them squirm and placing bets on which trap they'd die to.

He swallowed hard, trying to push the intrusive thoughts to the back of his mind. They had no choice but to play this straight and assume that whoever was behind this hadn't lied to them. With a deep breath, he stepped closer to a nearby bookshelf, his fingers tracing the spine of a book that was a slightly different color than the others. "We can do this," he repeated, even if he didn't believe it. He had to stay calm for both their sakes.